Inspired by your report we are going to take a mini trip to Gatlinburg. Planning on doing the Comedy Barn and Dollywood. I have a friend that is an entertainer at the Barn so we get in FREE! Leaving Monday morning.

See, I would love everything but the snakes. Yikes!!!
My sister and her family vacationed in Atlanta and then passed through the Great Smokey Mountains for a couple of days. They actually should be leaving as I type this. They had a ball. She said, she wished you could stay longer.

We just got back an hour ago! Great trip but boy was it hot, 100 yesterday afternoon. Thought the mountains were suppose to be cooler, not sure how hot it was yesterday here in the valley. While we were in the Comedy Barn a huge storm came through, tornado warning all around. This morning was very nice. We went to Dollywood and some folks were going in with jackets on? By noon all the jackets were off.
Not sure what to think about the crowds. Gatlinburg is always crowded but it seemed sort of empty, not dead but you were not shoulder to shoulder with people. I wonder if visitation is down.
Never made it to the National Park, which I happen to love, the boys were to busy with other things.

seeing bears isn't all that it is cracked up to be. lol we went to shenodoah last memorial day weekend, and walked one of the trails. on the way back up i was very slow, so everyone left me. i was going back up this trail by myself and had the strangest feeling of NOT being alone. finally i stopped and really thought about taking my knife out and logically i thought if it was a bear then i doubt my knife would do anything except make it more mad. so i decided to keep the knife where it was. so i started walking some more when i heard twigs cracking, turned to see where this sound came from and there he/she was! a big ole black bear. i knew i was not alone then. i screamed BEAR and ran up that hill. lol seeing them from afar is neat, but as close as i was, not so neat. lol

although i think i would take the bear sighting over the snake.

__________________
all star movies for 10! jun 15-21. what a nightmare of a vacation.

I was looking in the TR section and ran across your TR.
We are going to the Smokey Mountains in 2 weeks.
My son has a banquet the 14th in Gatlinburg.
We have one day to explore.
I have been there twice.
Once back in 2000 with my family and a year ago, me and my dd thought we would just drive through on our way to Savannah, 5 miles=1 hour and we didn't even get to the National Park. We gave up and drove out towards the east before the National Park.
So, hopefully, it won't be to cold/icy and wet and we can do some hiking.
Thanks for your input.
Have to find that pancake house.

We're planning our trip to HHI in April and we have a hotel booked in Gatlinburg on the way down. DH is always telling me that there is "more to see in this country than just Disney World" so I am thinking about adding a day to our trip and seeing a little bit of the national park.

I adjusted our itinerary so that we will spend our first night on the road in either Richmond or Berea, KY. Then, we're planning on getting up in the morning (a Saturday) and heading directly to Cades Cove. I'm hoping to let DH and DD7 take a horseback ride while DD5 and I go on a hayride. After that, we'd like to do the "auto tour" of Cades Cove. After that, we'll probably have to head to the hotel in Gatlinburg. The directions (from Google Maps) show that we need to take a road called Little River Rd or Old State Highway 71-scenic. It looks very winding and I am wondering how easy it is to navigate. Even though we have a 4WD vehicle, I don't want to be on some 2-track dirt road for 30 miles. Does anyone know how to tell how navigable a road is? We'll be there on April 2 and I think I read that this is a lower altitude area of the park so I am hoping that snow will not be an issue. This really won't be a "destination" for us since it is really just a stopover on our way to Hilton Head, but since we have an extra day, I thought it might be a nice way to spend 4-5 hours before we get back on the road. We'll have about 8 hours of drive-time (translated into about 10 hours total) for our first leg on Friday. Then, it looks like the Saturday trip from KY to Cades Cove is another 3.5 hours of driving (5 hours total) and then another hour from Cades Cove to our hotel in Gatlinburg. On Sunday, we'll have about 7 hours of drive time (9 hours total) to get to the resort at Hilton Head Island.

I like the idea of the "scenic layover", but since we will be in unfamiliar territory with not a lot of time to waste, I would like to know as much as possible before we get there. ANY information would be appreciated!